by Christopher Clark | Jun 9, 2026 | Background notes, Blog post, News, Rehearsal aids
I measure myself Against a tall tree. I find that I am much taller, For I reach right up to the sun, With my eye; And I reach to the shore of the sea With my ear. Nevertheless, I dislike The way the ants crawl In and out of my shadow. Wallace Stevens, Six Significant...
by Pru Bell-Davies | May 25, 2026 | Background notes, Blog post, News
My family moved to Virginia USA in August 2001, for a three-year NATO posting. Two weeks after our arrival the shocking attack of 9/11 took place. In the aftermath the whole of the USA came together perhaps as at no other time in its history, though the seeds of the...
by Christopher Clark | Feb 19, 2026 | Background notes, Blog post, News, Rehearsal aids
Portsmouth Baroque Choir’s concert Bach Family Motets at Portchester Methodist Church on March 14th 2026 opens with O Jesu Christ, mein Lebens Licht BWV 118: Oh Jesus Christ, my life’s light, My refuge, my comfort, my hope, On Earth I am only a stranger 1 And the...
by Christopher Clark | Feb 11, 2026 | Background notes, Blog post, News, Rehearsal aids
Imagine you were the neighbour or the nearest and dearest of Johanna Maria Kees, the widow of Leipzig’s Chief Postmaster, who had requested in her will to have something everyone can sing at her funeral, the popular chorale Jesu, meine Freude (Jesu, my joy), and...
by Christopher Clark | Nov 25, 2025 | Background notes, News, Rehearsal aids
Portsmouth Baroque Choir’s Christmas Concert ends this year with John Gardner’s rambunctious setting of Tomorrow shall be my dancing day. The anonymous text, possibly derived from a medieval mystery play, recounts episodes from Christ’s life told in the first person,...
by Christopher Clark | Sep 26, 2025 | Background notes, Blog post, News, Rehearsal aids
Ask any listener or concert-goer to name a piece by Alessandro Scarlatti that they really like and I guarantee they will struggle. In two of the more frequented superstores for classical music, Spotify and the BBC Proms, his stock is low. The Proms is not, of course,...
